SOURCE: Howells, Coral Ann. “‘There Is No Penny and No Slot’: Jean Rhys's Late Stories.” In Jean Rhys, pp. 124-46. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.

In the following essay, Howells elucidates the defining characteristics of Rhys's late short fiction—particularly her central themes of gender and colonialism—through an examination of five of her stories.

If I live I will call my next and last book There is no penny and no slot and if you pinch that title or variations I'll climb up to your window and give you nightmares. (This is a joke.)

(Letter to Selma Vaz Dias, 30 August, 1963)¹

It seems fitting that as Rhys did not call her last book ‘There is no penny and no slot’ my last chapter dealing with her late stories should dare to adopt her title and the deconstructive perspective it implies. These stories individually and collectively refute traditional ideas of...